The Trumpeteer

The floods of time

At the present time, it would seem that the World has gone not so much mad, as bad. It is perfectly summed up in the Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers’ reaction to the death of Els Borst, a previous health minister, who was found dead in her garage by a friend. Els had helped legalize euthanasia which became law in the Netherlands in 2001. Edith Schippers said of Els, “She ensured a breakthrough in the field of euthanasia for which very many people are still grateful.” This is staggering stuff. As far as I know the euthanasia law in the Netherlands gives the power of life and death to parents over their children up until they reach the age of 16. I hope that my information is wrong. However the Dutch, who are no lovers of the Germans, are unwittingly following the Nazi euthanasia programme, and will, if they continue along this path find, themselves creating liberal democratic totalitarianism, if such a thing can exist. The Dutch may have excellent ideas about drainage, dykes, and reclaiming land from the sea, but about morality they appear to know nothing.

With regard to the present flooding in Britain, Lord Smith suggested that those who choose to live in high risk regions, shouldn’t grumble when the floods come. Such insensitivity is remarkable even for the Tories. However is this not the contempt that rulers so often have for the people whom they govern? It was most depressing when Her Majesty the Queen seemed more concerned about money that she had lost in the last financial crash that we had, than about the sufferings of those less financially fortunate than herself. And how is it that rulers so often seem quite out of touch. It is hardly surprising that you have people like Marx, when so many people suffer terribly from the plutocrats, the industrialists and the financiers. True as Christ says, “For the poor you have always with you, but me you have not always.” (Matthew 26: v.11). However in the Sermon on the Mount he gives a plan for life, as he does in chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel, where he presents all Christians with the other part of the Christian’s life. We have all met the very wealthy Christian, who really does not understand what the life of Faith is all about namely not only orthodoxy, a rather rare commodity these days, but also orthopraxis. At least David Cameron, whose highly muddled and accommodating Anglican Christianity, which is infuriating, does see the present flooding as somewhat Biblical, is going in the right direction, where as Queen Elizabeth, who privately is a devout Christian, has rather missed the point. The point being, that you cannot be a private Christian, and certainly not if you are the head of the Church of England. If Her Majesty thinks that she can sign anti-Christian legislation and somehow be faithful to Christ, she has sadly lost the plot. However she will not be alone in this confused world, for if the impregnable fortress of the Catholic Church has seen its walls crumble and its defences collapse over the last 50 years why should one be troubled by the Queen being confused. Sadly manners do not make the man or the woman, fidelity to the truth and to the Gospel does.

If those who govern and rule, who direct industry or run banks, who teach or train, were to follow in the footsteps of Christ, then how different the world would be. Sadly one gets the impression that rulers and governments have nothing but contempt for the people, while giving the impression that they could not be more concerned; talk is cheap as they say, and worse still they try to manipulate peoples and nations, as we see in Syria, the Ukraine, in Bosnia, and now in Brazil. The love of money is the root of all evils. Why? Because money brings power, and most men get drunk with power, and then true authority goes out of the window. Sadly class warfare, which begins to take off by the end of 16th century, reaches its zenith in the 19th century and then explodes with the Russian Revolution. It is hardly surprising when one considers the awfulness of the Ancien Regime, which was really not so ancient and seems to owe much to Louis XIV. So you will have the educated and privileged, the wealthy and the power brokers making a sort of international class, where they understand each other perfectly, and then you will have workers and the poor, who will understand each others’ plight perfectly, but the ruled and the rulers will find it hard to understand each other. They speak totally different languages. The rulers and the businessmen talk about the economy and profit, the ruled ask about jobs, fair wages, and food. The rulers will not serve, except a very small minority, and the ruled will hate the despotism and the wealth of the rulers.

It is of absolute importance that both groups look to Christ. There they will see the ruler par excellence, and they must imitate him, for if they do not, they will endanger their immortal souls, and will join Satan who fell from Grace, and fell from love to the pit of Hell, the realm of everlasting Hate. God’s arm is not shortened, and we do not know if these floods are not the beginning of his response to the Gay Marriage Act, which was signed tragically and catastrophically by the Head of the Church of England, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. One can only hope that Pope Francis will, when the Queen and Prince Phillip visit him next month, be able to show them what it means to be a true disciple of Christ. May God have mercy on us all in these bleak and terrible times.